Evidence
7 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-7).
-
[1]Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS), 'LST-537' - live NHHC page returned 404 on 2026-10-02; verbatim text recovered from the 16 April 2025 Wayback Machine capture of the canonical page [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS LST-537 full entry (Wayback capture 2025-04-16 of canonical NHHC page)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- DANFS, verbatim: 'LST-537 was laid down on 27 October 1943 at Evansville, Ind., by the Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron Co.; launched on 31 December 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Robert C. Dean; and commissioned on 9 February 1944. During World War II, LST-537 was assigned to the European theater and participated in the invasion of Normandy in June 1944. Following the war, LST-537 performed occupation duty in the Far East and saw service in China until mid-January 1946. She returned to the United States, and was decommissioned on 29 May 1946 and transferred to the Republic of China. On 12 March 1948, the ship was struck from the Navy list. LST-537 earned one battle star for World War II.'
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1943-1948
- Population
- Ship's company (13 officers/104 enlisted spec) plus embarked troops
- Limitations
- Authoritative service history; contains no asbestos, insulation, or hazardous-material information. Live NHHC URL returned 404 on 2026-10-02 (standing LST-page link rot - sister pages e.g. lst-669, lst-682 resolve live); verbatim text cited from the archived Wayback capture, labeled archived per citation hygiene. No HyperWar or hazegray transcription located for this hull. Commission date (9 February 1944) conflicts with NavSource's 2 February 1944 - logged in gaps.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-537-lst537-01
-
[2]NavSource Online: Amphibious Photo Archive, USS LST-537 - specification block, theater/campaign table, flotilla chain, awards, chronology, CO roster, photo captions [other_primary]
- Locator
- navsource.net 10/16/160537 - spec block, campaign/awards tables, CO roster, chronology, USN-era photo captions
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- NavSource timeline for this hull (LST-491 Class Tank Landing Ship): laid down 27 October 1943 at Missouri Valley Bridge and Iron Co., Evansville, IN; launched 31 December 1943; commissioned USS LST-537 2 February 1944, LT. Raymond A. Teasley USN in command (CO roster lists Teasley as sole commanding officer, 2 February 1944 - 29 May 1946). WWII: 'assigned to both the Europe-Africa-Middle East and Asiatic-Pacific Theaters'; EAME campaign table lists the Invasion of Normandy, 6-25 June 1944; Asiatic-Pacific assignment under LST Flotilla Thirty-Seven (CAPT. Riley), LST Group One Hundred Nine (CDR. E. W. Wilson USNR), LST Division Two Hundred-Seventeen. Postwar: Occupation and China service in the Far East 2 September 1945 - 22 January 1946 (Navy Occupation Service Medal; China Service Medal extended). Decommissioned 29 May 1946; transferred to the Republic of China 30 May 1946, renamed ROCS Chung Ting (LST-203); struck from the Naval Register 12 March 1948. One battle star. Awards: China Service Medal (extended), American Campaign Medal, EAME Campaign Medal (1), Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, WWII Victory Medal, Navy Occupation Service Medal (Asia clasp). Spec block: 2 General Motors 12-567A diesels (900 hp each), single Falk main reduction gears, 3 diesel-drive 100 kW 230V D.C. ship's service generators, twin propellers 1,700 shp, 11.6 knots trial - a diesel plant with no boilers. Complement 13 officers/104 enlisted; troop accommodations 16 officers/147 enlisted. Call sign NEAX. Photo captions document USS LST-537 beached at Normandy (date unknown) and underway in company with USS LST-695 (date and location unknown).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1943-1948
- Population
- Ship's company (13 officers/104 enlisted spec) plus embarked troops (16 officers/147 enlisted capacity)
- Limitations
- Volunteer-compiled archival page quoting Navy sources; consistent with DANFS on every overlapping milestone except the commission date (2 February 1944 here vs 9 February in DANFS - logged in gaps; its CO roster shows Teasley in command from 2 February). 'Assigned to both' theaters reconciles DANFS's European-theater-only line with the documented Asiatic-Pacific flotilla chain - the Pacific assignment is undated in the source but cannot precede Normandy (June 1944). Spec data are equipment descriptions only - no asbestos, insulation, or hazardous-material information.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-537-lst537-02
-
[3]NavSource Online: Amphibious Photo Archive, USS LST-537 - ROC-service photo captions and disposition lines; corroborated at name level by the archived Republic of China Navy 'Old Warship Stories' page listing 中鼎艦 (Chung Ting) among eleven Chung-class ships (Wayback 2013-05-10) [other_primary]
- Locator
- navsource.net 10/16/160537 photo-caption block and disposition lines; Wayback 20130510004319 navy.mnd.gov.tw/Publish.aspx?cnid=868&p=10386
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Photo captions document the hull's post-US career: ex-LST-537 in Republic of China service as ROCS Chung Ting (LST-203) beached at Quemoy, 4 December 1958, Nationalist soldiers unloading bags of concrete for fortifications during the Communist artillery bombardment period (Second Taiwan Strait Crisis); ROCS Chung Ting moored with ROCS Chung Lien (LST-209, ex-USS LST-1050) at Kaohsiung, Taiwan, 2 October 1989; and a model of Chung Ting at the ROC Navy's Keelung Weihai Camp photographed 28 September 2019. NavSource's disposition lines state: 'Reported as owned and operated by Crowley Marine Services from about 1972 to 1982, used in the Pacific Northwest as a deck Cargo Barge' and 'Final Disposition, probably scrapped, circa 1985.'
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1946-1989+
- Population
- ROC Navy crews (1946-c.1989); reported commercial barge crews (c.1972-1982, unverified); breakup crews (date unverified)
- Limitations
- The source is internally inconsistent: 'probably scrapped circa 1985' conflicts with the same page's October 1989 photograph of the hull in ROC service at Kaohsiung, and the Crowley commercial-barge report (flagged 'Reported as' - unattributed) conflicts with continued ROC naval service unless a sale-and-return sequence occurred. Secondary literature gives ROC decommission as 18 February 1989 (Wikipedia infobox) or 12 March 1989 (Wikipedia text under an erroneous 'Chung Hai' name) and a 1993 ROC striking (uswarships.jounin.jp) - all unverified against ROC records. The Crowley claim could not be corroborated in any located source. The archived ROC Navy page confirms the Chung Ting name at official level but supplies no dates in captured text. No asbestos content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-537-lst537-03
-
[4]Shipbuilding History, Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron Co. yard production table, Evansville IN (hull 62 row); yard history text [other_primary]
- Locator
- Missouri Valley Bridge table, hull 62 row (LST-537); yard-history paragraph
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Yard production table row for this hull (yard hull no. 62): LST-537, FY1943, keel laid 10/27/1943, launched 12/31/1943, delivered 2/9/1944 - 65 days on the ways, 40 days in the water, 105 days total; disposition note 'to Taiwan 1946 as Chung Ting'. Yard context: the Evansville plant was built for the war effort on the Ohio River, produced 171 LSTs plus LCTs/lighters/seaplane derricks (the latter at a Leavenworth KS plant), closed after the war; the plant was destroyed by fire in 1946 and the ways remain visible at low water. Sibling Evansville hulls include LST-535 (to Taiwan 1946 as Chung Wan) and LST-536 (to Korea 1947).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1943-1946
- Population
- Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron construction trades, Evansville (1943-44)
- Limitations
- Specialist secondary compilation; consistent with DANFS and NavSource on every overlapping milestone. Its 'Delivered' date of 2/9/1944 matches DANFS's commission date - corroboration for 9 February against NavSource's 2 February commissioning claim (conflict logged). Page retrieved via firecrawl scrape 2026-10-02; direct fetch returned HTTP 500. No asbestos content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-537-lst537-04
-
[5]Corn JK, Starr J. 'Historical perspective on asbestos: policies and protective measures in World War II shipbuilding.' Am J Ind Med 11(3):359-373 (1987) [other_primary]
- Locator
- Am J Ind Med 11(3):359-373 (1987), DOI 10.1002/ajim.4700110311 (Crossref-verified)
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Peer-reviewed scholarship documents that WWII-era U.S. shipyards extensively installed asbestos-containing insulation, lagging, and gaskets in naval construction - the era in which this hull was built (1943-44, at an inland river yard). For a diesel-powered LST with no boilers, the era-relevant applications concentrate in diesel exhaust lagging, engine-room thermal/acoustic insulation, gaskets and packing, deck coverings, accommodation insulation, and winch/crane brake linings. Her four-plus decades of ROC-era service, the reported commercial deck-barge conversion (c.1972-1982), and eventual breakup are the plausible disturbance endpoints - none documented.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1941-1945 (study scope); applied 1943-c.1989
- Population
- WWII-era shipyard workers (Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron, Evansville, 1943-44); wartime crew; ROC-era maintenance populations; breakup-yard workers (era context)
- Limitations
- Era-level scholarship plus class/type inference; the source does not name this hull or class and does not establish that any specific material aboard this ship contained asbestos. No ship-specific product is verified; the diesel plant (no boilers) narrows the exposure-relevant scope relative to steam vessels. Citation corrected against an earlier batch record that carried DOI 10.1002/ajim.4700120402 and '12(4)' - that DOI resolves to an unrelated lead-exposure article; the Corn & Starr paper is AJIM 11(3):359-373, DOI 10.1002/ajim.4700110311, metadata verified via Crossref API (DOI resolves to Wiley, which 403s automated fetchers).
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-537-lst537-05
-
[6]GAO, Navy Efforts To Protect Workers From Asbestos Exposure, HRD-80-2 (Oct 18, 1979) [gao]
- Locator
- GAO product page HRD-80-2, Highlights section
- Finding type
- gov_survey
- Finding
- GAO documented the Navy's asbestos-protection program at the Long Beach and Norfolk Naval Shipyards: standing policy (1975) removed asbestos insulation only when damaged or when required for repairs, modified in 1979 toward selective replacement in high-maintenance areas. Neither policy could have applied to this hull - she left U.S. Navy custody on transfer to the Republic of China on 30 May 1946, roughly 29 years before the first policy issued.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- context_only
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1979
- Population
- Navy shipyard workers; asbestos program review (not this hull)
- Limitations
- Program-level Navy documentation for era fleet context only; the policies post-date this hull's USN disposal entirely, and ROC-era material management is undocumented, so no hull-specific application was possible. Product page verified live via firecrawl 2026-10-02 (gao.gov returns HTTP 403 to direct fetches); the linked full-report PDF was not opened.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-537-lst537-06
-
[7]Batch-7047 search ledger (this record): NHHC DANFS (live 404; Wayback capture), DANFS transcription mirrors, NavSource 160537, NVR, Shipbuilding History yard table, NARA catalog, LOC Veterans History Project, GAO HRD-80-2, shipyards.json cross-check, ROC Navy archived page, Crossref DOI verification, general web sweep; CourtListener API v4 (blocked - pacing) [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-lst-537-lst537-01 through sl-uss-lst-537-lst537-16
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located: no asbestos survey, abatement contract, hazmat disclosure, or litigation naming USS LST-537 was found in the public sources searched. CAVEAT: CourtListener could not be queried this session - the fleet-wide pacing budget (shared ~114/hr cap on the authenticated API) was spent across multiple spaced attempts; logged as blocked in search_ledger, not as a negative result. Secondary web sweeps surfaced no qualifying case naming this hull.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 2026-10-02
- Limitations
- Absence of a located public record does not prove absence of asbestos aboard - a 1943-44-built LST is era-consistent with asbestos-containing materials, and the hull survived in ROC service for four-plus decades. The litigation repository search is a genuine open gap (paced, not run). RG 24 deck logs and any ROC Navy material/disposal records are undigitized leads. Does not establish or defeat any claim of exposure or legal eligibility.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lst-537-lst537-07